A celebrated city manager across Central Florida, Richard "Dick" Simmons was "the quintessential public servant. " Those are the words of Florida League of Cities Executive Director Michael Sittig, who decades ago was an intern and later assistant under Simmons, then-city manager for West Palm Beach. "He knew where every dime was in the budget ... and he was parsimonious," Sittig recalls. "That's a good thing for a young person entering government to learn. " Simmons "wanted to run the best city in the country," Sittig adds, and "was committed to training the next generation" of public administrators, something that would earn him international acclaim.

We all crave food, and we all crave intimacy. Who can blame us if we sometimes confuse the two?Richard Simmons, so frugal with his own fat grams that he breaks Kit Kat bars into quarters and treats each segment as a separate snack, dispenses intimacy with wild abandon.In Detroit recently to sell his exercise videos, his weight-loss kit and his own peculiarly disarming self, Simmons started crying a mere 18 minutes into a taping of a local TV talk show.He hugged, he kissed, he displayed his inner child - Jewish and Catholic, 200 pounds of New Orleans cooking by age 13 - for all to see. He displayed his oiled 45-year-old legs, too, in tiny shorts (deferring to subzero temperatures, he wore bike shorts to the airport)

Decades after revolutionizing the fitness world, Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons are back doing what they started: starring in exercise DVDs and teaching workout classes. Fonda is 76 and Simmons is 64, and neither entrepreneur seems ready to slow down. Fonda, the actress who brought fitness into the home and to the masses with her famous 1982 video "Workout: Starring Jane Fonda," has launched a series of new fitness DVDs targeting baby boomers. Her latest book, "Prime Time," is a guide on living and aging well.

For a pre-Title IX girl, I have a pretty lengthy exercise resume. There were no soccer teams for little girls when I was growing up; no sports teams for girls in high school. And the women who played a sport when I was in college had to get permission from their "dorm mother" to travel to an away game. But I have still managed to tap into every exercise trend since racquetball, including indoor tennis, running 10K races, step aerobics, spin classes, walking, circuit training and Pilates.

When you're Richard Simmons, satisfying your junk-food craving can require going undercover. ``It's terrible, because where can Richard Simmons go to get pizza?'' the fitness guru said in USA Today. ``There's a Domino's about four blocks from my house, so I lower my voice and say, `Hi, this is Mr. Reveles, and I'd like to get a pizza.''' TV fitness expert Denise Austin and aerobics video star Donna Richardson also came clean about their junk-food habits. The two admitted they crave Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

His many supporters call him likable, professional, experienced and competent. His few detractors say he is tightfisted and sometimes shows a lack of foresight.Richard Simmons, 57, a Kissimmee native and the city manager of West Palm Beach for 16 years, is the only candidate currently being considered for the job of Kissimmee city manager.Commissioners are so impressed with Simmons that his is the only resume they have reviewed. Fifteen others have not been investigated, and the commission has suspended, for the time being, the advertising orders for national publications to announce the vacancy.

For a pre-Title IX girl, I have a pretty lengthy exercise resume. There were no soccer teams for little girls when I was growing up; no sports teams for girls in high school. And the women who played a sport when I was in college had to get permission from their "dorm mother" to travel to an away game. But I have still managed to tap into every exercise trend since racquetball, including indoor tennis, running 10K races, step aerobics, spin classes, walking, circuit training and Pilates.

TODAY'S THE DAY Is Commander Coconut listening? Surely he knows this is National Pecan Pie Day as he considers pecan to be the basis of the ultimate pie. I lean toward Key lime or coconut cream, but today we pay respect to pecan pie -- and the Commander. PICK YOUR HEADLINE "USA Tops World Sports" or "USA Gas Prices Fall" HOGWART DECEPTION The U.S. military may have perfected "invisibility cloaks" but swears the idea was not stolen from Harry Potter. BIRTHDAYS Milton Berle, 1908* Bill Cosby, 1937 Paul Silas, 1943 Richard Simmons, 1948 Kristi Yamaguchi, 1971 * Currently dead

With all due respect to soccer, the Magic, baseball's drug-testing policy and Jerry Greene, there is nothing on earth easier to make fun of than Richard Simmons. That's why we got so excited when we heard Simmons was charged with misdemeanor assault for slapping a cage fighter at the Phoenix airport. Talk about room-service Page 2 column fodder. Then we read part of the police report where Richard the Lionhearted explained himself. He said he was walking through the Sky Harbor Airport when someone spotted him and said, "Look, Richard Simmons.

Now that Kathie Lee Gifford has given her notice, the hunt is on for a new sidekick for Regis Philbin. Got a favorite candidate? Now is the time to speak your mind. Should she be young or old? Sweet or sassy? A she or a he? To vote, call the SentineLine at 407-872-7200 and enter Category 3865. You can vote on the line for Ellen DeGeneres, Joy Philbin, Fergie, Richard Simmons, Joan Rivers, Howard Stern, Dolly Parton or Suzanne Somers. To call in a sidekick we didn't list, call 407-420-5720.

Jar Jar Binks and Co. are headed back to the theaters Dec. 3-9.No, The Phantom Menace folks aren't trying to wring even more box office money out of a film that has already grossed about $428 million domestically playing in theaters from May 19 to early November.The upcoming one-week engagement in 350 North American cities - including Orlando - is an unprecedented fund-raiser for 177 charities. For the first time, 100 percent of a major studio's film grosses will go to charity.``It's a season when people really get into sharing,'' Gordon Radley, president of Lucasfilm, told Variety.

Harrington, the leader of North America's largest congregation in the Presbyterian Church USA, died Wednesday in Atlanta of cardio-respiratory failure. He was 63. During Harrington's 28 years at Peachtree Presbyterian, its membership grew from 2,400 to the current total of nearly 12,000. Harrington began his ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Hinesville, Ga., and served at Fairview Presbyterian Church in North Augusta, S.C., before moving to Atlanta.SHIRLEY SATIN SIMMONSSimmons, who appeared in television commercials and exercise videos with her son, fitness guru Richard Simmons, died Sunday.

As a man, I believe that, every now and then, a man should do something manly. So when I got invited to the North Texas Earthmoving Field Day, my manly reaction was: ``Heck, yes.''The North Texas Earthmoving Field Day is a very manly annual event organized by the Texas Engineering Extension Service, which is a member of the Texas A&M University System.The Earthmoving Field Day is a massive gathering of big studly machines of the type you sometimes see in the distance, pushing around humongous masculine piles of dirt.

Harrington, the leader of North America's largest congregation in the Presbyterian Church USA, died Wednesday in Atlanta of cardio-respiratory failure. He was 63. During Harrington's 28 years at Peachtree Presbyterian, its membership grew from 2,400 to the current total of nearly 12,000. Harrington began his ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Hinesville, Ga., and served at Fairview Presbyterian Church in North Augusta, S.C., before moving to Atlanta.SHIRLEY SATIN SIMMONSSimmons, who appeared in television commercials and exercise videos with her son, fitness guru Richard Simmons, died Sunday.